OFFSTAGE: Dierks Bentley: Rolling Stone Cover “Lost All Value”

(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that’s happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)

Dierks Bentley was one of a handful of country artists tweeting his feelings this week about the Rolling Stone cover featuring accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. And when I had the chance to ask him why he felt so strongly, he told me he just couldn’t believe the magazine would do that. “It really bothers me, man. That magazine is so iconic. I can’t even imagine how insulted those families must be by that image,” he said, referring to the families of the people killed and injured in the April 15 bombing. Up until this controversial issue, Bentley said he’d thought highly of the prestige that came with being on the cover — especially when it was a country star, like Garth Brooks, Shania Twain or Taylor Swift. “When one of our own gets on there, it’s like, ‘Wow, man, you got on the cover of Rolling Stone.’ It was always the coolest magazine. Something you dream about as a little kid playing guitar and singing, like, ‘One day I’m gonna be on the cover of Rolling Stone.’ With one picture, they ruined that,” Bentley said. He’s never been on the cover, and says now, “I never want to be.” He added, “Why would I want to be if you can be a terrorist and get on the cover? The cover’s lost all value.”